Hail to the Chief!

Have you ever thought, How the heck am I going to decide on a presidential candidate?

In Hail to the Chief!, Donna Carol Voss lays out the ten most important questions to ask any candidate who wants to lead our great country. She differentiates those areas a president can affect—like fiscal responsibility and small business regulation—from those that are virtually invulnerable to the powers that be—like Roe v. Wade and gay marriage.

• Should a 14-year-old girl to be able to get an abortion without her parents’ knowledge and consent?• How much power should a president have to work outside the Constitution, say, with a phone and a pen on a Tuesday afternoon?• Do we the people have a right to express our views publicly, no matter how politically incorrect they may be?• Are we willing to bomb innocent civilians to preserve our Judeo-Christian culture and save American lives?

Whatever your politics, Hail to the Chief! will get you ready for the most important election in our lifetime.

At Berkeley, I was made to understand that Republicans were evil, so of course I registered as a Democrat. I was also made to understand that Ronald Reagan was the anti-Christ. On election night 1984, when he took every state but Minnesota, it occurred to me for the first time that maybe Berkeley glasses weren’t the only way to see the world.

In my mid-thirties, as I came to have grittier, more real-world experience and, not coincidentally I’m sure, left Berkeley for San Diego, I felt more comfortable as an Independent.

Strangely enough, it was listening to Dr. Laura that first opened my eyes to a more conservative viewpoint. I met a Mormon, became a Mormon, and began to see the world in a much more traditional way.

Having such congruence with Republican values, it would be disingenuous for me to call myself anything but Republican; so, no offense to any died-in-the-wool Republicans out there, I held my nose a bit and registered with the GOP.

ONE OF EVERYTHING

The recipe for happily-ever-after? Start with one middle-class white girl in 1976. Add in her longing for love and acceptance, another middle-class white girl, a huge dollop of gossip, and excruciating peer and family pressure. Stir in youthful travel abroad, a Berkeley education, and a foray into paganism, drugs, marriage, and divorce. Whip until frothy with interracial and bisexual affairs, relationship violence, and exploration of multicultural mores. Season with salsa dancing. Temper with a segue into Mormonism. Decorate with a Temple wedding and garnish with motherhood to three adopted siblings. And what you have is a memoir capable of sating anyone's need for a great read.

Donna Carol Voss is a Berkeley grad, a former pagan, a Mormon on purpose, and a writer at heart. She is a people-watcher; ordinary folks and their always fascinating backstories are her passion. She lives in Utah ski country with her husband, three children, and a ruinously spoiled Havanese.